Abstract

Cathodoluminescence is used to measure the recombination velocity of the heterointerfaces between Cu2ZnSnS4 (CZTS) and CuxSnySz, SnS secondary phases precipitated along the grain boundaries as well as ZnS precipitated within the CZTS grain interiors. The CZTS/CuxSnySz and CZTS/ZnS heterointerfaces had recombination velocities smaller than the bulk carrier diffusionvelocity while the opposite is true for the CZTS/SnS heterointerface. Secondary phases having crystal structures compatible with CZTS (e.g., ZnS,Cu2SnS3) are likely to form heterointerfaces with small misfit strain and hence low interfacial recombination velocity. The precipitation of such secondary phases along grain boundaries in CZTS provides a novel mechanism for grain boundary passivation. However, it is not known if grain boundary passivating secondary phases would necessarily increase the overall photovoltaic device efficiency since other factors, such as the band gap of the secondary phase compared to the Shockley-Queisser ideal value and the nature of the heterointerface between CZTS (i.e., type-I vs type-II), also affect device operation and must therefore be taken into consideration.

Key Topics

[Including semiconductor components sensitive to infra-red radiation, light, electromagnetic radiation of shorter wavelength or corpuscular radiation and specially adapted either for the conversion of the energy of such radiation into electrical energy or for the control of electrical energy by such radiation, Including semiconductor components sensitive to
infra-red radiation, light, electromagnetic radiation of shorter wavelength or
corpuscular radiation and specially adapted either for the conversion of the energy of
such radiation into electrical energy or for the control of electrical energy by such
radiation]

[Semiconductor devices sensitive to infra-red radiation, light, electromagnetic radiation of shorter wavelength, or corpuscular radiation and specially adapted either for the conversion of the energy of such radiation into electrical energy or for the control of electrical energy by such radiation; Processes or apparatus specially adapted for the manufacture or treatment thereof or of parts thereof; Details thereof, Semiconductor devices sensitive to infra-red
radiation, light, electromagnetic radiation of shorter wavelength, or corpuscular
radiation and specially adapted either for the conversion of the energy of such
radiation into electrical energy or for the control of electrical energy by such
radiation; Processes or apparatus specially adapted for the manufacture or treatment
thereof or of parts thereof; Details thereof]